LONDON (Anadolu) – Hate crimes in the UK are on the rise because the government “tends to try to appease the far right by adopting some of their positions”, according to a prominent Muslim scholar.
Anas Altikriti, CEO of Cordoba Foundation, told Anadolu Agency that the British Muslim community has sensed that “there is a tangible rise in far-right and far-right groups that are now in government”.
His comments came after the publication of statistics Thursday by the Home Office that showed Islamophobic hate crimes in England and Wales skyrocketed last year with Muslims the most targeted group for the year ending March 2022.
The number of religious hate crimes recorded by police that targeted Muslims was 3,459, a 42% increase since last year.
“The figures that came out today only go to confirm the actual feeling that is quite tangible and quite powerful throughout the Muslim community we have been sensing, and seeing, observing ourselves, the rise in anti-Muslim sentiments and actions as well as the narrative, the overall overriding narrative, whether it be official, whether it be through society -- that the classes Muslims as almost second class citizens on the margins of society that are deserving of being the targets of the overall rise of far-right and nationalist sentiments,” said Altikriti, whose group tries to bridge “the gap of understanding between the Muslim World and the West”.
“It’s something that confirms those kinds of feelings. I think that the actual figures are far greater than what we saw will be it that they do confirm that Muslims are the targets of the, you know, the greatest anti-religious sentiments expressed against any religious minority. The fact is that this is something that we’ve been warning about for more than a decade now,” he said.